We have learned in Chapter 5 that the scroll in the right hand of God represents the Bible, and the Bible is Jesus Christ in print form. But to see Jesus in every verse of the Bible, He has to firstly unveil or expose Himself, and He is not going to tear off His clothing for anybody that is not His Wife.
Jesus was the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden who became sealed up when Adam fell. But at the end time, the Tree of Life is to be unsealed, so Jesus must unveil Himself in order to be seen. The Book of Revelation which we are studying is actually the Bridegroom undressing Himself. It is the full unveiling or exposing of the Bridegroom to His Bride.
Jesus is not being obscene here, for this wonderful revelation of the Bible is a private affair in a secret place, away from the prying eyes of the public, where Jesus can unveil Himself to His Bride by ripping off those seven seals that hid Him, so that the name written on His thigh (the place of regeneration; Revelation 19: 16) can be seen by His Bride, for Her to know that She is part of that name, and that the life She will bring forth by His pouring Himself into Her will be the very manifestation of that name.
During the seven church ages, Satan went forth to resist and combat every move and work of God. John would see him as a rider on four different colored horses: white, red, black, and pale. These horses represent powers. Satan rode out on these powers under the first, second, third, and fourth seal; and when He did, the Spirit of God was there to meet his challenge, for when the enemy came in, the Spirit of the LORD raised up a standard against it (Isaiah 59: 19).
The four living creatures or Cherubim around the Throne (Revelation 4: 6) were not only four anointings upon the elect during the church ages, but were a power that God used to repel every one of Satan’s attacks. The white horse that went out in Ephesus was met by the anointing of the Lion. The red horse that went out in Smyrna, Pergamos and Thyatira was met by the anointing of the Ox. The black horse that went out in Sardis and Philadelphia was met by the anointing of the Man. The pale horse that went out in Laodicea was met by the anointing of the Eagle.
The white color of the first horse represented Satan’s pretense of righteousness. He came in as a subtle antichrist spirit and used false anointed ones to work his way in amongst the true Church, and by doing so, he was able to lead many astray by teaching the scriptures with the slightest of error injected into it.
This is exactly what Satan did in the beginning. As the first Eve was led astray by Satan’s adding to the Word of God (Genesis 3: 1 – 5), so the second Eve (the early Church) was led astray in the same fashion. Satan holds a bow in his hand (Revelation 6: 2), but has no arrows, showing that he is a bluffer, and the father of lies (John 8: 44). This devious antichrist spirit would eventually receive a crown in the future, when the first pope was enthroned over the false church.
The red color of the second horse and the great sword in the hand of its rider would represent the blood of the Christians spilled in the persecutions against them by the religious Roman power.
The black color of the third horse and the pair of balances in the hand of its rider represented the false church’s exploitation of the people, by having them pay their way to Heaven through all kinds of made-up doctrines (indulgences, purgatory etcetera). The Catholic Church stole heavily from its members by its brainwashing techniques, and amassed vast wealth throughout the ages via its exploitation of the masses and by sending its armies to plunder other lands.
The pale horse was a mixture of the previous horses; in other words, all of Satan’s devious methodology would be blended together and culminate in the last age, which is a globalized one. Here the rider is named as Death, and Hell follows him; but whilst Hell is following Death (Lucifer), Heaven is following Life (Christ; [John14:6]). Life and Death are personified, and Heaven and Hell are personified, because in the last days, both worlds will materialize on the earth in the stream of human beings. We shall look at this under the fifth trumpet in Chapter 9 of our series.
Under the fifth seal, John saw the souls of the Jewish people who had been killed during the seven church ages. No race of people has been so hated, hunted down and persecuted like the Jews have, and it all happened because their forefathers made a fateful mistake when they uttered the following words in Matthew 27: 25… “His blood be on us, and on our children!” For 2000 years the Jews have suffered in a terrible fashion, especially during the Holocaust.
All of these Jews are saved, and are presently in a waiting place or dimension that John called the brazen altar of the heavenly sanctuary (to understand all about this, please read Souls under the altar) where they shall receive white robes (Revelation 6: 11) or eternal life at the Great White Throne of Judgment (Revelation 20: 11 – 15). We know that they are Jews because they believe in an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth (Exodus 21: 24), and they are calling for vengeance (Revelation 6: 10), whereas a Christian would ask the Lord’s forgiveness upon their enemies.
The sixth seal is famously known as the Great Tribulation, but it actually consists of three parts. The first part is to purge the foolish virgins, who are sanctified Christians in the message of the hour, but who did not receive the Holy Ghost. The second part is to purge the 144,000 Jews after they have been sealed under the ministry of the two Jewish prophets. They and the foolish virgins will seal their testimony with their blood in martyrdom. The third and final part of the sixth seal is the purging of the earth, in order to cleanse it for the Millennium, which is the Kingdom Age of Christ, when He shall rule over it with His Bride for a thousand years.
The description of the sixth seal can be understood in a spiritual sense as well as a literal one, for the darkening of the sun and the moon (Revelation 6: 12) represents the rejection of Christ by the denominations and the church becoming overshadowed by worldliness, whilst the falling stars represent fallen Lutherans, fallen Methodists, fallen Pentecostals etcetera (for the stars of the heavens represent the spirit of man on the earth). In other words, denominational groups that were once a genuine move of God came into a fallen state when they failed to move on with the unfolding Word. Instead of moving on, they denominated and died.
The Tribulation period begins with a great earthquake. This is the California earthquake (the “Big One” as scientists call it) that sinks Los Angeles and ends the Dispensation of Grace for the Gentiles. There will be no more salvation for the Gentiles during this time, because salvation is in the atonement (Psalm 103: 2-3), and to reject Christ is to reject the atonement. The close of the Gentile Dispensation is when the Gospel will be preached to the nation of Israel under the ministry of the two Jewish prophets, who will also smite the whole earth with plagues (Revelation 11: 6) whilst they are calling out the 144,000 Jews of Israel’s twelve tribes.
The Great Tribulation under the sixth seal escalates into World War Three that climaxes at Armageddon, when Christ and His armies return from Heaven to Earth to bring an end to the kingdoms of man (Revelation 19: 11-21). John saw the mushroom clouds from the explosions of nuclear warfare (the heaven departing as a scroll when it is rolled together), and the resultant nuclear winter (the sun being darkened and the moon becoming as blood). He saw missile strikes (the stars of heaven falling to the earth), and he saw the Pacific Ring of Fire ignite, as the volcanoes that run along it furiously erupt, accompanied by earthquakes that cause every mountain and island to move out of their places by the violent movement of the earth’s tectonic plates.
Proceed to Revelation Chapter 7